Thrown like a rag doll
A romantic walk nearly ended in tragedy, thanks to a boy racer
It was such a lovely day as I walked hand in hand with my boyfriend Barrie.
We’d just dropped off my parents’ car for a valet. And with the sun shining, instead of sitting and waiting at the garage, we’d decided to head to the park for a stroll.
Barrie and I had known each other for 15 years, but our lives had gone different ways.
We’d both settled down with partners and lost touch. Then, at the end of 2015, we’d hooked up again on Facebook.
Like me, Barrie was single again and we arranged to meet.
I felt myself falling for him. But Barrie’s mum Susan, 63, had terminal cancer and Barrie was spending all his time looking after her.
Our relationship went on hold.
Sadly, Susan passed away. I helped Barrie organise the funeral and clear out her home.
And now, we had time to get to know each other again.
A walk in the sunshine in May last year seemed like the perfect start.
As we walked down the pavement, I was chatting about our plans for the weekend when suddenly I heard a screeching of brakes.
The beginnings of a scream left my lips. Then everything went black. When I awoke, I was on the ground surrounded by grass and flowers. My head lay in a sticky pool of blood. Anxious faces peered down. ‘Don’t move,’ said a stranger. ‘You were hit by a car. The ambulance is coming.’ Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Barrie shouting my name. But then I drifted off again. When I awoke, I was being lifted into the ambulance. Blood streamed down my face and onto my clothes. The pain in my head was unbearable. ‘Stay with us, Bev,’ a paramedic urged. In seconds, I was floating off into oblivion once more. When I came round, my parents Barbara and Ron and my sister Amanda were there. ‘You’re lucky to be alive. The doctors say you could have been killed,’ Mum sobbed. ‘How’s Barrie?’ I croaked. ‘He’s in hospital, too,’ Mum replied. ‘He’s going to be OK.’ Barrie had severe cuts and bruises and damage to his shoulder. But a scan showed I had a bleed on the brain and a broken back. I had multiple fractures in my face, a broken nose and eye socket. I was in agony. Doctors put me on a trial drug, to try and stop the bleed on my brain. I didn’t need surgery on my back, as it turns out the vertebrae were chipped. I was put on painkillers, and morphine patches for that and broken ribs. Plus, I had stitches next to my right eye. How had this happened to us? I had no idea. But when I was discharged, I was finally reunited with Barrie and he filled me in. He told me a red Corsa had seemingly come from nowhere,
speeding towards us.
‘I was slammed against a brick wall,’ he told me. ‘You flew past me, like a rag doll.’
After the crash, a bus had stopped and all the passengers rushed to look after me and Barrie until help arrived.
The police came, and asked me to look at the CCTV.
‘Brace yourself,’ they said.
As the tape played, I felt my blood run cold. I saw myself flung through the air like a piece of rubbish.
Then my head smashed against a concrete post and I landed in a crumpled heap.
I could see the driver, Henry Rigby, was out of control. The police said he was young. ‘He must feel awful for what he’s done,’ I said to Barrie. Think again... We heard Rigby had pleaded not guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
‘How can he deny it?’ I spluttered. ‘It’s all on CCTV!’
Now we’d have to face a court case.
I was already plagued by flashbacks and had panic attacks. I had terrible headaches and back pain. Now this...
This July, Henry Rigby, 19, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court.
He marched in, all cocky and confident, without an ounce of remorse.
The court heard he’d lost control of his Vauxhall Corsa which veered onto the wrong side of the road, span round and mounted the pavement.
The vehicle then struck us, before demolishing a garden wall.
Witnesses described Rigby’s red car as ‘flying round the bend’ and travelling at ‘high speed’.
He was doing 40mph in a 30mph zone, despite the fact the road was wet.
But Rigby told the jury he was only doing 35mph, after he went ‘a little bit fast for the corner’.
Rigby was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Judge Robert Warnock sentenced him to 15 months in a young offender institution, suspended for two years, plus 240 hours of unpaid work.
He was also handed a four-month home curfew, from 8pm to 5am, a three-year driving ban and ordered to pay us each £750 compensation.
The judge told him, ‘I want you to understand how close you came to going straight into custody.’
Not close enough for my liking.
Rigby could’ve killed me. I still suffer with terrible head pain, and my face will never be the same. I’m scarred for life.
I can’t bear to walk down the street. Even the sound of a car driving past makes me panic.
I know it’ll take me a long time to recover.
Yet Rigby will be behind the wheel again in a few years.
The only good thing is that it’s made me and Barrie closer.
We’re trying to get through this nightmare together.
He marched in confident, without an ounce of remorse